ABSTRACT
The growth of a high degree of ‘reflexivity’ or self-consciousness among the populations of contemporary industrial societies tends to be regarded as one of the hallmarks of postmodernity (Gergen 1991; Lash and Urry 1994). By this is meant that modern societies have reached a position where not only are they forced to reflect on themselves but also they have the capability of reflecting back on themselves. For Giddens (1990, 1991), this has meant the capacity for greater personal, individual self-reflexivity, while for Beck (1992) it is societal self-reflexivity, through social monitoring and social movements (Beck et al. 1994). For researchers, this means that via the principle of reflexive explanation, ‘each of us as members of society are able to participate via certain roles and come to reflect on the products of that participation’ (Evans 1988: 2000). However, whether the condition of modern societies is branded as reflexive modernity or postmodernity, the vagaries of the postmodern condition are virtually unavoidable in contemporary examinations of social science and the worlds from which social research are formed, including our own.
